Learning The Trees Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD AEFG HFIC JKLD DCCM NDCC CFOP QARC SSCT UCVC WXYF| Before you can learn the trees you have to learn | A |
| The language of the trees That's done indoors | B |
| Out of a book which now you think of it | C |
| Is one of the transformations of a tree | D |
| - | |
| The words themselves are a delight to learn | A |
| You might be in a foreign land of terms | E |
| Like samara capsule drupe legume and pome | F |
| Where bark is papery plated warty or smooth | G |
| - | |
| But best of all are the words that shape the leaves | H |
| Orbicular cordate cleft and reniform | F |
| And their venation palmate and parallel | I |
| And tips acute truncate auriculate | C |
| - | |
| Sufficiently provided you may now | J |
| Go forth to the forests and the shady streets | K |
| To see how the chaos of experience | L |
| Answers to catalogue and category | D |
| - | |
| Confusedly The leaves of a single tree | D |
| May differ among themselves more than they do | C |
| From other species so you have to find | C |
| All blandly says the book an average leaf | M |
| - | |
| Example the catalpa in the book | N |
| Sprays out its leaves in whorls of three | D |
| Around the stem the one in front of you | C |
| But rarely does or somewhat or almost | C |
| - | |
| Maybe it's not catalpa Dreadful doubt | C |
| It may be weeks before you see an elm | F |
| Fanlike in form a spruce that pyramids | O |
| A sweetgum spiring up in steeple shape | P |
| - | |
| Still pedetemtim as Lucretious says | Q |
| Little by little you do start to learn | A |
| And learn as well maybe what language does | R |
| And how it does it cutting across the world | C |
| - | |
| Not always at the joints competing with | S |
| Experience while cooperating with | S |
| Experience and keeping an obstinate | C |
| Intransigence uncanny of its own | T |
| - | |
| Think finally about the secret will | U |
| Pretending obedience to Nature but | C |
| Invidiously distinguishing everywhere | V |
| Dividing up the world to conquer it | C |
| - | |
| And think also how funny knowledge is | W |
| You may succeed in learning many trees | X |
| And calling off their names as you go by | Y |
| But their comprehensive silence stays the same | F |
Howard Nemerov
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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